Great Western Coffee Shop

 I understand that the ordinary return fare from Melksham to Swindon will be reduced from 7.90 to 6.80 as from this Sunday. The Cheap day return goes down to 5.40.

My information is that this fare reduction is intended to encourage the growth of traffic.

2.80 single yesterday from Chippenham to Melksham, so that's come down by 20p.   I bought mine as an extension to my book-ahead tickets from Chippenham to London and back, and the other passenger on the train was travelling through as part of a York to Melksham journey, so as yet the reduction hasn't brought much more business for the Saturday, 21:38 arrival in Melksham.

Am I not correct in saying though, M-F you can't get a CDR from Melksham to Swindon, so the only use for it will be Saturdays, but it is still a step in the right direction

I don't know on days of the week.   Personally I question whether the reduction of already-low fares is going to encourage much more traffic, and it will add to the supposed gap between income and expenditure making the service more difficult to justify.  I would much rather see attention (fare wise) to the sillies like I reported on another thread - 18 pounds return Trowbridge to Winchester, but 92 pounds Melksham to Winchester. Bring THAT down to - say - 25 pounds and you're taking a step in the right direction and encouraging more traffic.